Trump Once Publicly Agreed With Obama On Gun Violence, And Then He Ran For President

“This isn’t a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level,” said the hypocritical, wannabe president who nixed Obama-era legislation regarding mental health and gun purchasing. Trump responded to the shooting in Texas the way he responded to Las Vegas – with thoughts, prayers, platitudes, and statements that do nothing more than placate the NRA.

This wasn’t always the case, though. Back in 2012, his response to Sandy Hook was one he wouldn’t be caught dead giving today:

First off, Trump hates Obama. Most of what Trump is currently doing is a concerted effort to shred Obama’s legacy because he can’t stand the man and views him as a threat. And as a Republican now, Trump won’t say anything at all about gun laws, period. He’s like every other Republican, sending his Thoughts and Prayers™ to the victims and their families while examining his fingernails as people once again call on Congress to do something.

Obama pressed strongly for gun legislation in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, where 20 children were brutally murdered for the crime of being in school that day. He condemned lawmakers’ inaction and called on them to find ways to end the tragedies. Sandy Hook was the fourth time in Obama’s presidency that the nation had mourned a mass shooting. As stated above, Trump wholeheartedly agreed with Obama’s powerful words.

Republicans and the NRA have conveniently forgotten that, and also forgotten that he once supported things like assault weapons bans, including the one passed under President Bill Clinton:

Trump’s change of heart on guns neatly coincides with his decision to run for president as a Republican. He had to establish his conservative credentials, and what bigger issue on which to do that than guns? So he switched gears and began parroting the NRA’s talking points. In 2015, he said that gun-free zones are targets for “sickos,” and that the answer to shootings was more guns. That’s textbook NRA. He was so convincing at it, too, that the NRA endorsed him and spent over $30 million to get him elected.

In other words, what happened is that Trump saw which position would be of the greatest benefit to him and took it. And now he knows he has to maintain it – even expand on it – or he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell at re-election (if he even makes it to the end of his term).